Leftover Pot Pie

More Thanksgiving leftovers to deal with.  I really do not want to have another turkey sandwich for the next 12 months!  And what to do with the left over green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy?  I made my own version of Shepard's Pie.  And because it was only for the LOML and myself, I was able to use a small 1 quart ceramic dish and bake it in the toaster oven - sweet!

Turkey Mole - Best Use of Leftovers

I personally think that there are more exciting dishes with which to celebrate Thanksgiving than roasted turkey. The LOML (Love Of My Life), who did not grow up in the USA and did not know about Thanksgiving until we started dating, insists on a traditional Thanksgiving dinner - turkey and all the trimmings (go figure!).  In the past I have come up with various themes such as a Mexican or French twist.  This year, the LOML and my Mom, decided that we should have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner without a theme.  Sons 1 and 2 were disappointed - they like the themed variations.  But they went along with the mandate and helped cook.  It was a good dinner and we ended up with a much bigger turkey than needed so, with plenty of leftovers, on Friday we made Mexican Turkey Mole from scratch.  It was good but everyone present who has eaten my "canned" version of Turkey Mole voted for the quick "canned" version.  This recipe can be made at any time with left-over chicken as well.

Freezing Stew

My favorite magazine – “Cook’s Illustrated” - is, of course, dedicated to cooking.  I really like how the authors write about how they go about developing a recipe.  Besides giving lots of good cooking tips, they also evaluate equipment and food products and since they don’t have advertisers or sponsors to answer to, I find their recommendations to be spot on.  They also give lots of good cooking tips.

One of their cooking tips caught my eye in the recent Sept/Oct 2013 issue (page 31) titled “Freezing Stew? Read This First” (not a MLA style citation but you've got all the information!).  I like to cook in quantity and freeze meal size portions for future lunches and dinners.  I have frozen plenty of stews so  I was surprised by the brief article (which I shall further condense) that not all cooked vegetables freeze well.  The author cooked and then froze a number of common stew vegetables including the following that I often add to my stews – squash; carrots; peas; sweet potatoes; and red, Yukon gold, and russet potatoes.  They found that the potatoes and squash were reduced to a watery mush after freezing.  Their advice was to cook the squash and potatoes on the side and add them in when reheating the stew.